Cloning Blues: Difference between revisions

* In ''[[Solaris (Literature)|Solaris]]'', the crew of a space station are each faced with the person most important to them, in the flesh, even when that person is dead. These creations function as clones of the original person with only some of their memories. And one crew member, Snow, turns out to be a clone. The person most important to the original Snow was himself, and so he created his own clone unintentionally. Then the clone killed him, stuffed him in an air duct, and took over the dead man's life.

* The Clone Army in the ''[[Star Wars]]'' prequels is (uncharacteristically for the series) a rather dark version of this, essentially ''millions'' of men mass-produced and conscripted to fight and die for a war in which they have no stake and no choice as to whether they want to fight (and, thanks to accelerated aging, they're technically [[Child Soldiers]] as well). The general impression from the films (and more explicitly stated in various [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] materials such as ''[[Star Wars the Clone Wars]]'') is that the Jedi didn't want to use the clones but against the threat of the Sith they had little choice, and despite the galaxy at large viewing the clones as little better than the droids they fight the Jedi mostly view them as individuals. Which serves to make it all the more tragic when [[Kill'Em All|Order 66]] is enacted.

* The excellent (although visibly low, ''low'' budget) film ''Anna To The Infinite Power'' is about an emotionless [[Child Prodigy]] girl who discovers she was born as part of a cloning experiment by some ''very'' unpleasant people. Adapted from a novel of the same name. The haunting end theme is [[Crowning Music of Awesome]].

* ''[[Judge Dredd (Film)|Judge Dredd]]''. Rico is the product of a cloning experiment that [[Goes Horribly Wrong]] in the [[Backstory]]: he becomes a mass murderer instead of the ultimate Judge. Joseph Dredd is his clone brother.

 

== Live Action TV ==

** Interestingly, the Cylons are never seen to make clones of existing human characters, rather they were based around certain archetypes of personality and appearance. All people revealed to be Cylons were that way from the beginning. They were either self-aware but passing for human or had fake memories. By the end, it is strongly implied that the Cylons would not even have known how to go about cloning an individual human; most of them didn't know how their own system of downloading functioned.

*** The Number Eight models were unique among Cylons in that they disagreed with each other. All other Cylons were, apparently, similar enough in personality that they could be counted on to have any member of the model vote for the entire model line in a representative system, even though some of them had different individual experiences that might have affected their personalities. Then again, Boomer is also the only model of which any copies worked as unconscious sleeper agents, so that might explain the difference.

** As seen in ''[[Caprica]]'', the first Cylons of the Twelve Colonies result from the controversial copying of human consciousness into robot bodies.

** At one point, even the apparently-revived Starbuck ponders whether or not she might be a clone with fake memories {{spoiler|she's not}}.

** Averted with {{spoiler|Jenny}} in {{spoiler|"The Doctor's Daughter"}}, a fraternal "clone" (the process doesn't produce an identical duplicate). She does get told she's "not real" by The Doctor and ''quickly'' calls him on it.

** Played straight with Slime!Martha in "The Sontaran Strategem."

* ''[[The King of Fighters (Video Game)|The King of Fighters]]'' series loves clones so much that there have been at least 5 or so clones of Kyo Kusanagi running around at one point (Kyo Kusanagi's 1 & 2, K', Krizalid, K9999, and Kusanagi). There was also the [[Opposite Sex Clone]] Kula, and one of the bosses, Zero, {{spoiler|had a clone who was the boss in the game preceding him}}. The series is inconsistent about the use of the term, however, as K' is actually a normal human modified to have Kyo's powers and there is argument over whether Kula is something similar.

* It turns out in ''[[Overblood]]'' that {{spoiler|both Milly and Raz are clones. The labs had actually been cloning loads of Raz's as [[Super Soldiers]] and to look after her. Milly is actually the clone of the original Raz's wife, who died. Both of them argue with the real Raz that they aren't simply clones and can't be forced to do whatever their originals did/what Raz wants them to do.}}

** Ac!d-verse Snake gets a [[Tomato in The Mirror|tomato in the face]] when it's revealed he is a clone of Solid Snake. Which would make him a ''[[Up to Eleven|clone of a clone]]''.

* In ''[[Street Fighter]]'', depending on which plot twist you're in, BBEG M. Bison (known as Vega in Japan) has an army of clone soldiers, including Juni, Juli and Cammy. However, the term "clone" is used inconsistently and it's been stated that Juni and Juli are girls kidnapped from Germany.

* A different kind of Cloning Blues occurs in [[Real Life]], with creatures that reproduce asexually -- by dividing their cells into two, creating an identical clone. Studies have indicated that it's way easier for parasites to optimally adapt to a strain of creatures with identical DNA than to a species whose biology is based on the genetic lottery of sexual reproduction, and there's evidence that that might be the reason sexual reproduction evolved in the first place. (Go read Carl Zimmer's book ''Parasite Rex'' to find out more.)

* Most fruit bought in today's grocery stores are in fact clones, a practice much simpler than "cloning" depicted on TV and a practice that goes all the way back to ancient China -- in essence it's an artificially induced botanical form of asexual reproduction. These clones are typically called Cultivars and are usually registered and well documented. For example, ''all'' "Grape Juice" is made from the Concord Grape (white grape juice is typically from the "Niagara Grape"); every single Concord Grape vine is genetically identical to every other Concord Grape vine. For decades, these grapes have been cloned naturally by taking a cutting off one of their branches, shoving it in the ground, and waiting for roots to appear. Sometimes the growers get creative, using a cloned top of the plant and a cloned root system (called rootstock) stuck on for good measure -- for plants that are really tasty or grow really well except for their roots.

** This is a common practice with fruit trees as well. In the Yakima Valley in Washington State, USA, where most of the country's apples are grown, it would be difficult to find an orchard tree whose seeds had the same genetics as its root cells.

** [http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq5250.html Pygmy Sundews], a type of Carnivorous Plant, take this one stage further. They grow a special type of growth called a "gemmae" -- a seed without a shell. These gemmae, when ready, explode off the plant and land nearby, where they grow into a perfect clone of the original plant if the conditions are right. It makes growing hybrids very easy, as once you have a plant you like, you can simply wait and in the fall, it will clone itself a few dozen times over.

[[Category:You Hate What You Are]]

[[Category:Cloning Blues]]